After selling out in just 13 days, student football tickets are red hot this year, and scalpers are charging big bucks -- with some Michigan tickets going for more than $200.

Since there weren't enough student tickets to meet the demand, scalpers have been able to name their price -- and many students are willing to pay. But they are not happy about it. Some are still wondering why the athletic department couldn't sell more tickets to those who were not part of the lucky 20,732 that got student tickets. After all, there are 107,282 seats in Beaver Stadium.

Greg Myford, Penn State's associate athletic director for marketing and communications, said the reason the student section cannot be expanded is because there is not enough space in Beaver Stadium to fit more students.

"There's not an easy answer when demand is at this level," Myford said. "We can't make up seats that aren't there."

However, some students think there are other reasons behind the student section limit.

Tony Grazel (senior-world language education and applied Spanish), who missed his chance to buy season tickets because he was studying abroad in Spain in the spring, sad he thinks tickets were not given to students because student tickets cost the least of any type of ticket.

"I'm really disappointed with the system," Grazel said. "It shows it's all about money."

Myford said that ticket revenue is important for Penn State Athletics, since Penn State's 29 varsity athletic teams do not receive any money from tuition or general university funds and must be supported through ticket sales and fundraising by the Nittany Lion Club. But he insisted that the issue is one of space -- there are just simply no open seats for additional students.

Non-student season ticket holders, who take up about 70,000 seats, have the option to renew their seats each year -- and about 97 to 98 percent of them do, Myford said. The low turnover rate means new seats are hard to come by.

"If you look at where the student section begins and ends, literally the next seat down is a season ticket holder," Myford said.

But the university and the athletic department did try to think of ways this summer to accommodate more students, and considered adding temporary bleachers.

"We made a very concerted effort with [Penn State President] Dr. Spanier and other officials to try to figure out how we could add seats," Myford said. "But we were not able to do this safely with temporary bleachers. We couldn't get permission to do it."

How tickets are distributed

Only students have a specific number of season tickets allocated to them each year. Other groups, such as faculty and staff and the Nittany Lion Club, are given seats by priority.

First dibs go to the Nittany Lion Club, a group of 20,000 alumni and other supporters of Intercollegiate Athletics that raises funds for Penn State's varsity teams.

"Our first priority has to go to the Nittany Lion Club, because they do fundraising specific to athletics," Myford said.

Season tickets are then sold to faculty and staff, companies who support Penn State athletics through corporate sponsorship and people eligible for Club seats. To sit in Club seats -- 4,000 seats in the second and third level of the South End Zone -- one must purchase a Club season ticket on a multiyear contract, as well as a Nittany Lion Club membership, Myford said.

Both the public and alumni, with the exception of those in the Nittany Lion Club, cannot buy season tickets.

Students may purchase season tickets for the student section on a first-come, first-serve basis, regardless of what class they are in, Myford said. The distribution of tickets usually comes out even between the four classes within an estimated 150 tickets.